Nobody can DRAG me down

13 February 16

"Indeed, the parody is of the very notion of an original."

"This perpetual displacement constitutes a fluidity of identities that suggests an openness to
resignification and recontextualization." (188).
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York:
Routledge.
Butler claims that drag performed by men cannot be parodying women, but the idea that women
have some common quality that can be parodied. The "work" that drag performers do to change
perception of women while observing themselves the quickly changing standards for women is
creating that "resignification and recontextualization" that Butler describes. The "perpetual
displacement" she talks about could be referring to a) the lack of identity that drag performers
may feel in their combination of typically male and female pieces or b) the every-changing
culture revolving around women, often not structured by women themselves. Drag performers
parody the fact that women have had little to no control about what they've been expected to
wear, how they should appear, etc.
While I've never seen a drag performance live, the documentary "Paris is Burning" is one of my
favorites, and of course I've tuned into RuPaul ever now and again when I need good makeup
inspiration. The men who perform drag aren't necessarily impersonating someone else, they're
just embracing the parts of themselves which are labelled "feminine." Drag performances have
become somewhat separated from simply expressing a little seen side of men, and, thanks to
megastars like RuPaul, have become more commercialized but have not lost the original parody
of what can never really be parodied.